DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0145
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
adorns a drawing-room, moves faultlessly and never says
anything tactless. There is something well-turned-out in his
nakedness; yet there is nothing that encourages you to
attempt more intimate relations with him. If you did, your
partiality would hardly survive the test; and one day you
would discover some trivial detail — a malformed ear, for
instance - that you could never get over as long as you lived
and that would prevent you ever asking him to the house
again. The Middle Kingdom discovered the middle course,
an eminently practicable social style. Its mentality is com-
parable with that of the Quattrocento. You seldom take the
things very seriously and they get smaller in the mind’s eye.
The lifesize Queen Nefret in the corridor, with her ringlets,
has all the attractiveness of miniature sculpture. Her statues
x
would be still prettier if you put them in show-cases. Even
the great granite sphinxes are nice and manageable; the only
thing you must not do is to think of the sphinx of Gizeh.
In modifying current artistic usages they displayed some
inventiveness. Besides miniature sculpture, which led to a
class by itself, colossal sculpture enjoyed a great vogue. As
early as Sesostris i they started giving royal statues an im-
portance which had never been theirs before; and this
increase in scale had widespread consequences. Two of these
gigantic versions of the first Sesostris stand in the vestibule
of the museum; they are like the pillar-figures in the third
room, only much larger. One is in granite, and the other is
painted limestone; they are stylized forms that cry out for the
architecture for which they were destined. This agreeable
relation with architecture was the decisive step which threat-
ened the independence of sculpture. We know the impor-
tance of the diorite statues in the gateway of Chefren. Their
dignity was not dependent on any closer connexion with
the building. They sat like gods in their granite house, and
the smooth blocks echoed their exaltation. Only the com-
plete abstraction of art symbolized the holiness of the king.
i 129
adorns a drawing-room, moves faultlessly and never says
anything tactless. There is something well-turned-out in his
nakedness; yet there is nothing that encourages you to
attempt more intimate relations with him. If you did, your
partiality would hardly survive the test; and one day you
would discover some trivial detail — a malformed ear, for
instance - that you could never get over as long as you lived
and that would prevent you ever asking him to the house
again. The Middle Kingdom discovered the middle course,
an eminently practicable social style. Its mentality is com-
parable with that of the Quattrocento. You seldom take the
things very seriously and they get smaller in the mind’s eye.
The lifesize Queen Nefret in the corridor, with her ringlets,
has all the attractiveness of miniature sculpture. Her statues
x
would be still prettier if you put them in show-cases. Even
the great granite sphinxes are nice and manageable; the only
thing you must not do is to think of the sphinx of Gizeh.
In modifying current artistic usages they displayed some
inventiveness. Besides miniature sculpture, which led to a
class by itself, colossal sculpture enjoyed a great vogue. As
early as Sesostris i they started giving royal statues an im-
portance which had never been theirs before; and this
increase in scale had widespread consequences. Two of these
gigantic versions of the first Sesostris stand in the vestibule
of the museum; they are like the pillar-figures in the third
room, only much larger. One is in granite, and the other is
painted limestone; they are stylized forms that cry out for the
architecture for which they were destined. This agreeable
relation with architecture was the decisive step which threat-
ened the independence of sculpture. We know the impor-
tance of the diorite statues in the gateway of Chefren. Their
dignity was not dependent on any closer connexion with
the building. They sat like gods in their granite house, and
the smooth blocks echoed their exaltation. Only the com-
plete abstraction of art symbolized the holiness of the king.
i 129